[Keplaz]

A young boy discovers the reason why he has suddenly become unlucky

Chapter One: Frer Noel

The day I met Frer Noel wasn’t one of the best days of my life. It wasn’t one of those sunny days where the skies are blue and butterflies float merrily through skies whilst kites are drifting in the light summer breeze. This was the real world, South London and when you ever known London to be anything but miserable? I was sulking in my room, lying on the bed with my face down and trying to breathe through the pillow. I tried to cover my ears with my hands, attempting to drown out the noise but when they were in this mood, not even an electric foghorn could keep you from hearing.

“Shut up! Just shut up.” my mum would yell.

“You shut up, this my house.” my dad would yell back.

“Just shut up Jim! I can’t even look at you right now.” she would say.

And before long it would be a full blown argument about shutting up and neither of them would remember what had started them off in the first place. I was sick of it. The walls in the house were paper thin and all attempts to send me to my room so I wouldn’t over hear were useless. I knew we were broke. Knew that my dad had been laid off and my mum couldn’t get a job and that we were so many different kinds of poor at the same time. My shoes could tell me which season it was even if my eyes were closed. All I knew was that summer was the one when my socks weren’t always wet. And my clothes had been washed so much they all looked the same colour.

I won’t say whether or not I was sobbing but my pillow was suddenly wet and my throat was incredibly dry. I could taste the salt as the tears streamed down my cheeks. I was fed up. Everything seemed to be going wrong right now. As if we were in a rut we couldn’t get out off, and if I was the type to believe in curses I would swear someone had hexed us. Not only were my parents fighting more than I’d ever seen or heard them in my twelve years of life, the word divorce had been thrown around more than a few times and I was suddenly doing badly in school. It wasn’t as if I wasn’t trying or anything, it was sabotage I could never prove.

My homework had been done. It was always done. Yet when I’d handed my book to the teacher I’d gotten detention for trying to be cheeky. I couldn’t understand what he meant, I’d busted my brain doing those sums and I’d told him I wasn’t trying to be cheeky, it was homework and I got another detention for trying to be smart. When he finally got tired of hearing his own voice, he showed me the offending pages and where I had written in what I thought was relatively neat handwriting, the pages were blank. I’d stared at that book as if was an alien object. I flipped it over to make sure it was the right book, which it was, Archie Andrews 7K Maths. All the lines and margins were still there but everything I’d written the previous night seemed to have evaporated, as if I’d been writing with invisible ink but I checked my ball point pen and it was working just fine but something else out there was clearly wrong. Something I couldn’t prove.

It wasn’t just school either. It was everything. My best friend Max had suddenly become a bully and to make things worse, my bully. He’d changed so much in the space of a fortnight it was as if someone had given him a personality make over. One day he is this super nice geeky type lad who liked reading Sherlock Holmes and the Hardy Boys and the next minute he was this sunglass wearing, Mohican haired, leather jacket wearing monstrosity. He wasn’t coming to lessons anymore, this was a guy whose attendance record had been completely perfect. I mean Max would come to school after Dental appointments. He was that type of guy. This whole call me “Mad Dog” thing and can you lend me your pocket money but you won’t get it back and no this isn’t voluntary, had come completely out of the blue. He seemed to have grown too. One day I could push him around or punch him playfully without hurting my knuckles, the next day trying to punch him felt like I was sparring with a brick wall.

Something had gone seriously wrong somewhere and I was right at the centre of it. I could just feel it. And it had happened two weeks ago. My dad got laid off two weeks ago, my mum’s interviews dried up two weeks ago, our money had mysteriously been deleted by the bank two weeks ago, Mad-dog had been born two weeks ago, my homework had started vanishing two weeks ago. The world had gone insane two weeks ago. It was like in cartoons, when a light bulb suddenly lights up and you can hear the ringing bell sound. My pillow was still getting wet and the salty taste wasn’t going away but it was as if something had clicked in my head but I was in the mood for feeling sorry for myself. I hadn’t had a cry about anything a long while. It was during this thinking stage that I heard a cough in my room.

The man had flowing red hair tied up in a pony tail. His nose was squat and flat, and the nostrils seemed to flare every second. He had a ginger beard that was like the bobble from a winter hat stuck under his chin. His eyes were blazing green and it wasn’t just the fact that there was a strange man in my room that was worrying, it was the way he was dressed. He was wearing pyjamas.

The most elegant pyjamas I had ever seen, midnight blue, pure silk with gold embroidering at the edges and the initials FN, stylishly stitched into the pocket. There was a man wearing pyjamas in my room. I opened my mouth to yell for help. To summon my parents, the police, anyone. But my voice wouldn’t work. Only a low hissing sound, like a balloon leaking air kept coming out. And I found I couldn’t move my body either. The man just kept staring at me, the ends of his mouth curling in amusement at my obvious discomfort, And I knew that whatever had gone wrong with my life. He was somehow involved.

“Are you done trying to scream?” he said, in a very deep voice that sounded like the growling of an angry Rottweiler, “Because I could keep this up all day but I'm afraid we are in danger and we really must be going.”

I continued my muffled protesting but my mouth seemed to have been sewn shut by an invisible thread, I don't know how I got the idea of banging my head against the wall to get my parents attention but that didn't work either as my body was somehow paralysed. My heart was beating like a runaway train and if I could have, I swear I would have wet my pants. I was that afraid. And yet.....

And yet, there was something calming about the man in pyjamas. His face though cruelly good looking, had a softness and an air of kindness that made me want to trust him. Oh great, I was thinking, this guy breaks into my room and somehow voodoos me and I feel I can trust him? This really couldn't be happening.
“Yes, you can trust me and before you even think it, yes Archie, I can read your mind.” he boomed, smiling broadly, the teeth on show were commercial white. This guy could have his pick of toothpaste adverts.

Just then, a silver dagger whizzed through the air and towards my head. The dagger was about the size of my middle finger but its pointy end looked sharp and as it had been aimed at my eye, I knew I would be blinded. The dagger had come from somewhere behind the man in the pyjamas, I could see it all the way as it whistled through the air, my body unable to muster any sort of movement what so ever. Not only was unlucky, I would soon be blind. Before the knife got to me I'd had just enough time to see who had thrown it. My last thoughts before being sliced would be, this is impossible, and it was. The creature that had thrown the dagger could not exist in reality.

It had matted brown fur and was about four foot tall. The creature's torso and head were like those of a teddy bear, chubby and dark brown but full of raw power. Its snout was dark black, it's eyes small and round, shiny like glass buttons. Sharp teeth were visible and bared in a twisted sort of smile. A long tail protruded above it's head and this is where the creature got a bit freaky. It had the arms, hands and feet of a monkey. I knew that the daggers it had were made of pure silver and that it could throw as quickly and as accurately as a karate master. I knew the creature very well. In fact, I knew everything there was to know about it and that its only weakness was cheese and also that I was as good as dead, KTMs never missed.

Just as the dagger got near my head, I could see the glinting blade clearly now, the man in the pyjamas moved much faster than I would have expected from him. Time seemed to slow down and the dagger got slower and slower or maybe it was because he was moving so quickly, but he snatched it out of the air and in the same motion, threw it at the KTM. I almost felt sorry for it, a grimace was visible on the teddy bear face and then it yelped as the knife stabbed it right in the chest and then it vanished in a puff of smoke.

The only way to kill a KTM was with it's own daggers and I had no idea how the man in the pyjamas knew this. I was the only one who knew about the Killer Teddy Monkeys. I was the only who knew about them, because they only existed in my imagination and yet, they had just tried to kill me. This couldn't be real.

“I'm Frer Noel and you know better than me that the KTM hunt in packs. I need to get you out of here Archie. Those creatures are real I can sense your unbelief. But I can't explain anything to you right now, we have to go.”

As I couldn't move any part of my body I just stared at him weakly.

“I'll unbind your body, I can't make you do anything against your will, I have to obey all your requests. It's part of the rules but I am your guardian and you are going to have to believe me Archie. If you die here, half the fight is already lost. I will tell you though that if you don't come with me, everything and everyone you love will die. You think the bad luck was something, but if Gulzer ever gains control, it will get a hundred times worse.”

I could tell he was telling the truth. His expression was solemn and his voice was laced with sincerity. I had to go with the stranger. I had no life to speak of anymore. Everything had changed. I was afraid, I won't lie and I wouldn't normally go anywhere with a stranger, but there was nothing normal about anything right now.

“I'm going to release you now. And I know you won't scream Archie.”

A warm sensation spread through my body and I could suddenly move again. I decided not waste the opportunity to speak.

“Where are we going?” I managed to say.

“A place you know very well, Archie. I can't say anything here. You won't believe me and you might change your mind. It's best to find out when we get there. Put on the pyjamas your Aunt Sophia sent you. They are made of cotton I know, but they will offer you the best protection possible until I can get you better ones.” he said, his piercing green eyes, boring into my being.

“Pyjamas?” I said, my eyebrows raised. I was beginning to wonder when the men in white coats would arrive, either for him or for me. I couldn't be sane anymore. This wasn't possible.

“No you are not going crazy and neither am I. Haven't you ever wondered why they are called pyjamas? The clue is in the name, pyj-armour. It's for protection. You'll understand better when we get there,” Frer Noel said.

I'd forgotten about the mind reading thing. My parents were still arguing as I took the never worn pyjamas my aunt had bought me for Christmas. There was a reason they had never been worn. They were purple and decorated with flower petals. I hated them but it didn't seem like I had much of a choice. I wanted my life back.

It took me about two minutes to get my pj's on. I looked ridiculous, I swear if anyone from school ever saw me like this, I'd never live it off. School. That reminded me of my friend Linda. She was my new best friend since Max had morphed into Mad-dog.

“When will we be back? What about my parents?” I asked Frer Noel.

“Your parents will never know you'd left. Time works differently where we are going. Are you ready to go?” he said, carefully scrutinising my appearance.

“Don't I need slippers as well?” I said mockingly.

He smiled.

“Trainers will be fine. Slippers don't really do anything in terms of protection and then only slow you down. I prefer these myself.” He said raising a foot.

He was wearing Reebok running shoes.

“Can we go now?” he asked, offering me his hand.

“Not exactly. You said I you had to do whatever I wanted, well I want Linda. I'm not going anywhere with you alone. I don't even know what's happening.”

He stared at me with blank eyes and didn't even look surprised. Oh yeah, mind reading.

“I was afraid of this but I knew it was coming. We have to hurry, Archie. We have not much time and I can't stay in your world for longer than an hour.”

I looked at my watch, he'd already been here half an hour.

“Grab my hand.” he said.

I did it awkwardly. This felt weird.

And then he tapped his side with his free hand and my room disappeared.

[creativeminds]

and interesting story! I can't wait to read what else happens to archie andrew. maybe finally the mistery of his unluckness will finally be reveled

[Twisted Hearts]

Very descriptive, I like the repetition for "two weeks ago" but I think I found a mistake:

the ends of his mouth curling in amusement at my obvious discomfort, And I knew that whatever had gone wrong with my life. He was somehow involved.

Here's a correction:

the ends of his mouth curling in amusement at my obvious discomfort; and/then I knew that whatever had gone wrong with my life, he was somehow involved.

I suggested 'then' because if you read the passage aloud with 'then' in it, it could be an alternative. I think it would work better putting emphasis on it. All in all, good story beginning; 9.5/10.

[Venomous Vixen]

This was the real world, South London and when you ever known London to be anything but miserable?

when have you?

My shoes could tell me which season it was even if my eyes were closed.

Loved this image

All I knew was that summer was the one when my socks weren’t always wet. And my clothes had been washed so much they all looked the same colour.

comma between wet and and instead of a period

Captivating read and bugger for stopping where you did! You know I was thinking about him being insane the whole time so I was happy when you played out that thought "The men in the white coats"... let me know he was not crazy and solidified the story for me. I am looking forward to more of this! I hope you do come back to it, I could cry if another series around here goes unfinished!

[130993st]

As stated by Twisted Hearts, it was very descriptive and fun to read. I really liked the mean man.
Keep it up